1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to an online gift registry and reminder system that allows consumers to register gifts or items of interest in a centralized “Wish List” database. These gifts can be open-ended or tied to a specific event such as a wedding.
2. Description of Prior Art
Traditionally, in the United States, there have been bridal registries available in department stores that allow couples to register gifts that they would like to receive for a wedding present, but there are no corresponding registries for other occasions. Some other occasions may be such as a) Baby Showers; b) Christmas; c) Graduations; d) Funerals; d) Birthdays; e) Father's Day; f) Mother's Day; g) Anniversaries; and other holiday or religious events.
The current practice is for a single store, usually a large department store to provide a bridal registry service, which are commonly known. The registrants typically register at more than one store to provide alternatives for potential gift-givers. Additionally, potential purchasers must visit these stores, wait in line, and then enter certain information to identify the registrant, only to be given a limited list of items of interest to the registrant that is offered at that particular store.
Currently, the larger stores are the only ones providing bridal registries due to the cost involved in developing and operating gift registry systems. Consequently, smaller stores don't have the funds or facilities to provide these services to their customers and thus have to do without. Additionally, potential purchasers may not like the store typically used for the registry, or may be able to find the same item at a different store for a lower price.
The present invention involves the problem of allowing individuals to register gifts from multiple online business entities, referred to herein as Service Providers, “SPs”, or Merchants. These gifts available from selected Service Providers are generally limited to wedding gifts, such as china, crystal, silver, and other household items.
A more recent partial solution, which exploits the low cost and wide availability of the Internet, has been for some bridal-registry specific Internet sites to host their own content as World Wide Web sites (“Web” or “WWW” sites) which can be accessed by consumers “directly” via the Internet. With this approach, the user (consumer) typically registers with the Bridal Web site and enters information for a single event. Family and friends visit this web site to view the list of items that are of interest to the couple, but once this event occurs (i.e. Wedding ceremony), there is no longer a need for this service. Another limitation of this approach is the limited integration with participating SPs or merchants.
While this kind of self-service bridal registry has met with tremendous acceptance in the marketplace, there is a continued need for a multi-merchant registry that allows for individuals to seamlessly register gifts for all occasions, even while browsing merchant sites. Furthermore, there is a great need to be automatically notified of future events related to the gift registration process.